Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Weekend Summary

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, you must be a paying member of the JTTM; for membership information, send an email to [email protected] with "Membership" in the subject line.)

Note to media and government: For a full copy of these reports, send an email with the title of the report in the subject line to [email protected]. Please include your name, title, and organization in your email.

On January 25, 2018, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group operating in the Sinai Peninsula published a video titled "To be Absolved before Your Lord" featuring the testimony of an alleged defector from the Islamic State (ISIS) Sinai Province.

Issue 22 of Turkestan Al-Islamiyyah, the Arabic-language magazine of the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), published a fatwa (Islamic religious ruling) by Egyptian cleric Hani Al-Siba'i, a jihadi scholar who lives in London, in which he writes that women are permitted to emigrate from East Turkestan [the Chinese province of Xinjiang] to Syria, and waives the need for her to be accompanied by a male escort [mahram], because of the difficult situation of the Muslims living there.

On January 29, 2018, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group released a video of Gloria Cecilia Narvaez Argoti, a Colombian nun who had been kidnapped by militants in Karangasso, Mali in February 2017. In the video, dated January 2018, Argoti also refers to Pope Francis' trip to Latin America, which took place during the same month.

A media outlet of the Jaish Al-Islam jihadi group that operates in Gaza published a series of photographs on January 28, that document a training course for mujahideen fighters in the operation of SA-7 antiaircraft rocket launchers.

The media arm of the Gaza-based Salafi group Jaish Al-Ummah released an audio message on January 25, 2018, with the title, "Message to Our People in the West Bank and the Occupied [Land, i.e. Israel]," recorded by a man named Sheikh Huzaifa.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a militant group of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, has issued a press statement saying that a number of criminal groups including human traffickers, drug traffickers, dacoits (armed bandits), and other armed groups are "disguising as the members of ARSA" to tarnish the group's image in the eyes of the international community.

On January 26, 2018, Al-Qaeda media wing Al-Sahab released an audio recording of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri marking the seventh anniversary of Egypt's revolution. In it, Al-Zawahiri notes the failure of the Arab Spring in general and highlights the main reasons behind this failure.

On January 31, 2018, the Algerian Ministry of National Defense reported on its website, that Abu Rawaha Hisham, the head of the Al-Qaeda In The Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) media department, was killed during an operation conducted by Algerian security forces the day before.

The Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) organization that is active in Syria published an advertisement on January 28, 2018, announcing the start of a campaign to attract new recruits into its ranks in the Aleppo region.

In recent days, the Syrian branch of the Uyghur jihad organization Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) released several photos and a video documenting the ongoing battles against Syrian regime forces in rural southern Idlib, Syria.

After U.S. President Donald Trump said on January 30 that there will be "no peace talks" with the Afghan Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban organization), issued the following statement: "U.S. President Donald Trump exposed his war-mongering face yesterday by stating that he had no intention of holding peace talks with the Taliban. These expressions by Trump prove and clear up the following points:"

Given below is a weekly statement issued by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban organization): "Whenever a country is under occupation, its land and air space is under control of foreigners and its system runs on the commands of foreigners; then obviously, chaos and anarchy replace peace and prosperity. It is because people want freedom and independence while the regime works for the interests of the invaders contrary to aspirations of the people."

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban organization) claimed that at least 246 military personnel of the Afghan security forces died in the January 27 suicide bombing near the old interior ministry building in Kabul, according to a statement. Afghan and foreign news agencies put the number of the dead at 95, including dozens of civilians.

On January 26, 2018, in the northwestern Pakistani town of Hangu, security officials seized a large cache of weapons, including improvised explosive devices and rocket launchers, as per this photograph that appeared in the local media.

Given below are six short reports on the activities of the Pakistani jihadi organization Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) published by the group's weekly Urdu magazine Haftroza Al-Qalam dated January 26 – February 1, 2018.